"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." - Oscar Wilde

Friday, December 18, 2015

European Parliament calls on Egypt to release Irish juvenile facing death sentence

The European Parliament, Strasbourg, France

The European Parliament has passed a resolution calling on Egypt to
release Ibrahim Halawa, an Irish juvenile who faces a death sentence for
attending protests.

In a vote this morning, an overwhelming majority of MEPs – 566 to 11 –
voted for the resolution on Ibrahim’s case, which “calls on the Egyptian
authorities to immediately and unconditionally release him to the Irish
authorities.” Ibrahim was 17 when he was arrested and tortured during
the Egyptian military’s August 2013 breakup of protests in Cairo. He
faces the death penalty in a mass trial of 494 people.

The resolution was passed with no amendments, despite apparent Egyptian
efforts to block it earlier this week. In emails sent to a number of
MEPs, Egyptian officials made a number of false claims about Ibrahim’s
case. They include the suggestion that Ibrahim, now 20, may not have
been a juvenile at the time of his arrest, in spite of a passport
confirming his age; that he has been able to speak in court, when he has
never had the opportunity to do so; and that he has not been subjected
to physical abuse.

Today’s resolution repudiates these efforts, saying that the Egyptian
authorities “have failed to recognise Ibrahim Halawa as a juvenile at
the time of his arrest”, in violation of Egypt’s legal obligations, and
that ”the prosecutor has failed to provide evidence that Ibrahim Halawa
was involved in a single act of violence during the protests.” The
resolution also “strongly condemns” Egypt’s the use of mass trials and
the death penalty in relation to protests and the political opposition.

The vote follows Tuesday’s postponement of the mass trial
for the 11th time in over two years. The trial is due to restart this
Saturday (19th), amid concerns that it does not meet international fair
trial standards. A series of chaotic hearings have seen defence lawyers
prevented from taking part, and hundreds of the prisoners held in cages,
where they are unable to see or hear the proceedings.

The Sisi government’s use of mass trials to hand down hundreds of death
sentences to political protestors, journalists and others has provoked condemnation from the UN, the EU, and governments that are close to Egypt, including the US and the UK. Research
by international human rights organization Reprieve, which is assisting
Ibrahim, has found that the use of the death penalty has surged in
Egypt since the suppression of protests began, with some 600 death
sentences handed down in the last year alone.

Commenting, Maya Foa, head of the death penalty team at Reprieve,
said: “Despite the Egyptian government’s efforts, the European
Parliament has sent a loud and clear message to Egypt today – release
Ibrahim Halawa, and end the disgraceful use of mass trials and death
sentences. Instead of trying to quash the growing calls for justice in
Egypt, the Sisi government must listen – and reverse the terrible abuses
taking place in its prisons and courts.”

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I oppose the death penalty in all cases, unconditionally, regardless of the method chosen to kill the condemned prisoner.
The death penalty is inherently cruel and degrading, a cruel punishment that is incompatible with human dignity.
To end the death penalty is to abandon a destructive diversionary and divisive public policy that is not consistent with widely held values.
The death penalty not only runs the risk of irrevocable error, it is also costly to the public purse as well as in social and psychological terms.
The death penalty has not been proved to have a special deterrent effect.
It tends to be applied in a discriminatory way on grounds of race and class.
It denies the possibility of reconciliation and rehabilitation.
It prolongs the suffering of the murder victim's family and extends that suffering to the loved ones of the condemned prisoner.
It diverts resources that could be better used to work against violent crime and assist those affected by it.
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